The masterful Civilization series is going beyond the bounds of our own atmosphere and taking to the stars in the newest iteration of the title coming later this year. Prepare to go Beyond Earth and check out the trailer and some more information below...

The game sees you leaving the bonds of Earth and taking to the stars to find a new place to call home for mankind...

• Seed the Adventure: Establish your cultural identity by choosing one of eight different expedition sponsors, each with its own leader and unique gameplay benefits. Assemble your spacecraft, cargo & colonists through a series of choices that directly seed the starting conditions when arriving at the new planet.
• Colonize an Alien World: Explore the dangers and benefits of a new planet filled with dangerous terrain, mystical resources, and hostile life forms unlike those of Earth. Build outposts, unearth ancient alien relics, tame new forms of life, develop flourishing cities and establish trade routes to create prosperity for your people.
• Technology Web: To reflect progress forward into an uncertain future, technology advancement occurs through a series of nonlinear choices that affect the development of mankind. The technology web is organized around three broad themes, each with a distinct victory condition.
• Quest System: Quests are injected with fiction about the planet, and help to guide you through a series of side-missions that will aid in resource collection, unit upgrades, and advancement through the game.
• Orbital Layer: Build and deploy advanced military, economic and scientific units that provide strategic offensive, defensive and support capabilities from orbit.
• Unit Customization: Unlock different upgrades through the tech web and customize your units to reflect your play style.
• Multiplayer: Up to 8 players can compete for dominance of a new alien world.
• Mod support: Robust mod support allows you to customize and extend your game experience.

...it all sounds very cool indeed.

The game looks like an interesting evolution of the mechanics and style they have adopted with Civilization V which was certainly one of the best in the series once you take into account the added expansion content. I think this sounds like an awesome game and I can't wait to play it.

With that in mind maybe we'll see a variant of it hit the tabletop. After all we had a Civilization board game a few years ago so why not one where you take to the stars?

Are you excited?